Within the scope if the illustrative embodiments, a 360-degree view is a panoramic view of objects in a geographical space or virtual space, where the view is a photographic or virtualized view of the surroundings of the object. Hereinafter, a 360-degree view is interchangeably referred to as simply “view” or “360-view” unless expressly disambiguated where used.
A 360-view includes frames of visual data, e.g., picture or video data, where each frame depicts a partial view of the surroundings of the object. A user can see or otherwise perceive a 360-view by panning across frames, tilting across frames, or both—panning and tilting across frames of the 360-view. As a non-limiting example, a 360-view of a house—as provided by the street-view feature of some navigation applications—includes a view from the point of view of a viewer positioned in front of the house and observing the house and its surroundings, e.g., to the north, south, east, and west of the house. In some cases, a view above the house, e.g., of the roofline and the sky, or below, e.g., of the ground or features lying at a lower level than the house, are also included in the 360-view. Similarly, in a virtual world, such as in a virtual gaming environment, an avatar of the user can be presented with a 360-view of the avatar's lateral surroundings, vertical surroundings, or both.